Saturday, January 21, 2012

New Pereksta Information - Surname Saturday

Ivan or Janos Pereksta(1857-1933) who was from Prislop in what's
now far northeastern Slovakia. Four of his children (Mary, John, Sue and
Anna) settled in the US.

George Pereksta (1878-1938) who was from either Prislop or nearby
Starina. George and his wife Nellie ended up in the Cleveland, OH area.

While I assume there is a relationship, I have no idea what it might be other than George is not Ivan's son. (Ivan did have a brother George, however.) There are also other Perekstas from the same villages who settled here.

A George, another Anna and a William from Starina show up Danbury, CT in early 20th century census and immigration records. While the records suggested they were siblings, I did not know if CT George was the same man as OH George. For there are other Georges...

There is a George Pereksta enumerated in Pennsylvania in the 1910, 1920 and 1930 censuses. A George Pereksta traveled from Prislop to the U.S. with Ivan's daughter Mary Pereksta in 1901. There are at least three other immigration records for men named George Pereksta.

New information sheds some light...

Happily, a recently discovered obituary clarifies the Georges (some) and the family relationships. Anna Pereksta Pastorok (the Anna of the Danbury, CT records) died in Binghamton, NY on 27 May 1950. Her obituary names two surviving brothers - William Pereksta of Passaic, NJ and George Pereksta of Koppel, PA.

So there is another Pereksta family in the United States:

Anna Pereksta Pastorok (1870-1950) ended up in Binghamton, NY
where Ivan's daughters lived. They called her tall Anna (which doesn't
mean she was all that tall).

George Perekesta (1877-?) lived in PA. His last known address was in Koppel, PA.

William Pereksta (1880-?) lived in Passaic, NJ near to Ivan's son John.

These three are not children of the above Ivan, nor are they siblings of OH George. They all named Starina as their home in immigration records. For the moment I am calling them the Danbury/Starina Perekstas.

For the record, I am deliberately not including sources. Ornery I know. But I really, really, really want to communicate with descendants of any of these families. I promise I'll share. You just have to press the email link in the right column.

Looks like you've got yourself quite a puzzle, Susan. Do you know if you're related to Ivan? If so, that George who immigrated with Ivan's daughter sounds interesting. Oh, the tangled webs our ancestors wove...

Comments related to the information shared here are most appreciated. All comments are moderated, and since I am not actively researching right now it many take a day or two for your comment to post. Please know that it will post, and that I much appreciate the feedback.